Prissy Clerks

Updated
12/13/2012

Saturday: Buzzy slack-rockers drop their debut LP at the Entry.

PRISSY CLERKS

9 p.m. • 7th Street Entry • 18-plus • $6-$8

A year that started with their win in Vita.mn's Are You Local? contest, Prissy Clerks will end 2012 with a release party for their debut album. The LP's title, "Bruise or Be Bruised," could reflect either its heavy guitar work or the quintet's wounded formation, as singer/guitarist Clara Sayler and bassist Howard Hamilton III came together after the abrupt ends to their old bands, Total Babe and Red Pens, respectively. Sayler's soft voice belies the sneering tone of such songs as "Blast-Off Girls" and the title track, which sound straight out of Boston circa 1990 (see: Belly, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh). Even when she edges into melodrama in "I'm Too Young to Lose My Mind," Sayler is saved by Dylan Ritche's potent reverb noodling and the reminder that she's not even yet of legal drinking age. The Jim Ruiz Set, Alpha Consumer and Nallo open. CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

33RD ANNUAL JOHN LENNON TRIBUTE

8 p.m. • First Avenue • 18-plus • $15

Curtiss A, the leader the annual John Lennon tribute, has a goal to perform 100 songs total on Saturday, starting with "Twist and Shout" and ending with "all the psychedelic, big songs." In between, there will be the now-standard mid-show intermission to promote "Minnesota Beatle Project, Vol. 4," wherein Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers, John Mark Nelson and Big Trouble will each play their tracks off the new music-ed charity CD (which also features Trampled by Turtles, Astronautalis and more). Curt also has a few surprises of his own lined up in the interim, including a mayoral appearance -- the one that plays guitar, not the crowd-surfer -- and a special stripped-down set dedicated to his longtime friend and bandmate, Bob "Slim" Dunlap, who's now back home but still suffering the effects of a severe stroke. C.R.

CRANKSHAFT

2 p.m. • Lee's Liquor Lounge • $8-$10

One of the scene's more colorful characters and best purveyors of foot-stomping blues-rock, Alex Larson and his trio Crankshaft & the Gear Grinders have put together a thick fruitcake-like conglomeration of similarly rowdy and rootsy bands for a Second Harvest Heartland holiday fundraiser at Lee's. The party will also feature Southern-baked boogie-woogie greats Davina & the Vagabonds, New Orleans-styled blowers the Jack Brass Band and blues-punk bad-asses Poverty Hash.C.R.

SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA

9 p.m. • Triple Rock • 18-plus • $15

With no shortage of influences, these culture-crossing Canadians touch a variety of genres with their uplifting sonic fusions. Latin and island rhythms shuffle underneath funked-out horns and jazzy, wandering guitars on the Ottawa sextet's recently released fifth album, "Solidarity." The new record marks a return to form after 2010's acoustic and mostly instrumental "Rising Sun." Once again plugged in and employing vocals (though less confrontationally than on 2008's "Manifesto"), multi-instrumentalist bandleader Pierre Chrétien has his Afrofunk troupe sounding vibrant as ever. Brass Messengers open. MICHAEL RIETMULDER

HIGH ON FIRE

9 p.m. • Turf Club • $15

Amazingly through its bong-loaded Black Sabbath sound, this searing stoner-metal trio's aggression never seems to wane. Frontman Matt Pike, also of doom/drone band Sleep, has become an underground metal hero thanks to his sludge-to-thrash prowess and Lemmy-channeling bark. With metal classics "Surrounded by Thieves" and "Blessed Black Wings" in their catalog, the Oakland-based bashers dropped their sixth studio album this year to favorable reviews, once again proving Pike can do metalheads no wrong. Despite coming off its least compelling album to date, Louisiana death-metalers Goatwhore have a trove of pulverizing throat-scratchers to mine live. Lo-Pan opens. M.R.

3 DOORS DOWN AND DAUGHTRY

8 p.m. • Myth • all ages • $48

Two brawny hard-rock bands with enough power ballads and good looks to attract female fans, too, 3 Doors Down and Daughtry roll through on a 19-city co-headlining tour. "Kryptonite"-heavy Mississippians 3DD have another track off the radio to play, "One Light," from their first greatest-hits collection (titled "Greatest Hits"; these guys keep it simple). "American Idol" alum Chris Daughtry and his band are still touring behind last year's gold record, "Break the Spell." P.O.D. of "Youth of the Nation" fame open. C.R.